PROJECT 2. Personalized Interventions to Improve Treatment Engagement in BD: Jodi M. Gonzalez, Bren Manaugh (CHCS), Charles Bowden, Jim Mintz A. What we propose to do: This project will assess the effectiveness of a personalized peer to peer intervention (PPI) compared with a control condition in persons with BD who have low treatment engagement. We believe that a significant contributor to worse outcomes in Hispanic BD patients is that culturally induced stigmatization of mental illness serves as a barrier that prevents patients from adequate engagement in treatment. To study this issue we propose using a peer to peer intervention. We believe that this interaction will enhance a sense of connectedness which will improve understanding of health care programs, increase sense of empowerment and engagement and consequently wellness. PPI aims to personalize psychosocial evidence based interventions through targeting the needs of individual with low treatment engagement. Figure 1 provides a conceptual rationale. Outcomes will be assessed by adherence to psychiatric visits and medication(s), quality of alliance with the provider/system and symptomatic and functional measures.